Comments on: Mexican eco-terrorists declare war on nanotechnology, threaten scientistshttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html
Brain candy for Happy MutantsMon, 15 Sep 2014 23:11:17 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2By: Brainsporehttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1678059
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:44:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1678059“Nasty microscopic things that could wreak havoc on human life” is a plausible scenario but even without getting into the physics an all-encompassing “grey goo” never passed the sniff test. We’ve had self-replicating nanoscale constructs for a long time now: they’re called “proteins.”
]]>By: AnthonyChttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677995
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:35:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677995Does that mean the term “grey goo” has a similar origin to “big bang”?
]]>By: Jeremiah Blatzhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677974
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:05:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677974Are you kidding? Oil companies have over $3 trillion in annual revenue. They’re just ramping up?
]]>By: Tynamhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677785
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:53:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677785It’s likely that the opening moves of the artilect war would contain this kind of human stupidity, yes, but that would just be the AIs taking advantage of our natural tendency to self-sabotage.

(MIRI was more of a brand confusion issue than a change of mission – thankfully.)

]]>By: Tynamhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677784
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:49:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677784A better description: Drexler knew that the popular SF “self-replicating submicroscopic swarm threat” was not a plausible hypothesis at the time he wrote Engines of Creation. (Essentially due to energy input / resource constraints.) He was not worrying that the Earth would be turned into sludge or computronium, merely attempting to illustrate some more specific ecological threats.

As usual, nuance got lost in the press quotes.

So, yes, falsifiability is the distinguishing criterion – but the hypothesis is “not real” in that Drexler already believed the popular image to be false at the time he proposed it.

]]>By: Tynamhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677783
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:44:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677783I can’t find Drexler’s original comment on this offhand, but take a look at http://www.crnano.org/PR-IOP.htm or Some Limits to Global Ecophagy
]]>By: L_Mariachihttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677760
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:19:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677760What makes a hypothesis “real” aside from falsifiability?
]]>By: SophieMerryhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677726
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:00:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677726Has anyone checked on Ted Kaczynski’s whereabouts? Still firmly behind bars, I trust?
]]>By: Brad Ackermanhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677699
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:44:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677699There’s an implied “those things are bad, except when I have them” in that manifesto — just like anti-gun politicians with carry permits, hard-right televangelists with homosexual liaisons, etc. etc. etc. Hypocrisy would be the new black, except it’s not really new at all.
]]>By: Shiva Yam Hologramhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677683
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:03:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677683It’s happening! Hugo De Garis’ artilect war is upon us! Anyone else get the memo that the Singularity Institute changed its name to Machine Intelligence Research Institute, btw?
]]>By: bcsizemohttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677681
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:00:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677681Real or not it is just as likely as a computer system turning into a Skynet type of program, or future robots rising up against us (without a centralized command like Skynet). Honestly grey goo is probably even more likely. Since you are dealing with things at a nano level, once maker bots are building things in a similar size range, it wouldn’t be hard to program them for killing. Self replication might be the limiting factor in their wide spread effectiveness. More then likely you’d end up with something akin to a spreading virus than an expanding mass of nano bots.
]]>By: AnthonyChttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677675
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:48:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677675[citation needed]
]]>By: AnthonyChttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677673
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:47:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677673Technology is anything invented after you were born that doesn’t quite work yet. :p
]]>By: Sirkowskihttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677639
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:02:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677639They should lead by example and destroy themselves.
]]>By: Matthew Johnsonhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677557
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:27:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677557How do you call them “eco-terrorists” when they want to whipe out a whole species. I call that pure stupidity on both ends.
]]>By: jackbirdhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677552
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:22:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677552I was hoping the diamond airships, telepresent improv acting, and undersea orgies would be the parts of The Diamond Age that came true, not the anti-nanotech terrorism.
]]>By: fuzzyfuzzyfungushttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677502
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:33:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677502Has anybody told the drug cartels that the fall of human civilization will substantially reduce the value of the US market? I have a sneaking suspicion that that might be a quicker solution than going through official channels.
]]>By: eldritchhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677449
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:45:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677449It seems the Involuntary Human Extinction Movement is ramping up.
]]>By: Romeo Vitellihttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677418
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:29:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677418 The Grey Goo hypothesis was never real. It was only suggested as a tongue-in-cheek scenario. Only the anti-nanotechnology types actually take it seriously.
]]>By: Guidohttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677382
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:09:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677382Solid arguments against primitivists

“Did those who modify and destroy the Earth think their actions wouldn’t have repercussions? That they wouldn’t pay a price? If they thought so, they are mistaken.”

Uh, dude… the researcher that you tried to destruct is in that very same Earth you wanna protect from destruction. Are you guys trying to launch researchers into space to kill them there with your bombs?

]]>By: Rick Adamshttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677321
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:28:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677321Aren’t bombs technology? Also, if they want to revert back to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, would they consider spears technology… or clothes? It’s hard to see where the line begins and ends. I don’t think they’ve really thought it all through…
]]>By: TheOvenhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/mexican-eco-terrorists-declare.html#comment-1677310
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:21:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=218334#comment-1677310One has to ask why? If they just let the scientist do his nano-job, he’ll usher in the age of our robot-overlords and they’ll get their wish sooner than with pathetic bombs.
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